Israel’s top two ministers said Thursday that the time is ripe for the Jewish state to fully annex the West Bank, touting that the groundwork has already been laid out.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz called for the controversial move to deploy Israel’s military across the Palestinian territory to claim the biblical cities of Judea and Samaria, the term Israel uses when referring to the West Bank, the Times of Israel reported.
“Ministers Katz and Levin have been working for many years to implement Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” their offices said in a joint statement.
The ministers claimed that the preparations for annexing the West Bank began during President Trump’s first term, when his administration backed a plan for Israel to take control of the majority of the territory.
“This was expressed, among other things, in the work done by Minister Levin during President Trump’s first term, in which all the necessary things were prepared for the important move – from a proposal for resolutions to precise maps, and Defense Minister Katz led a series of unprecedented decisions to strengthen settlement and pave the way for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” the statement added.
The West Bank, a large stretch of land that lies west of the River Jordan, stands as the home of some 3 million people and is surrounded on three sides by Israel.
Israel claims historical and religious rights to the West Bank, describing it as the ancestral land of the Jewish people and the sites of the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Samaria.
The territory was ruled by Jordan until the 1967 Six-Day War, when it fell under Israeli occupation, leaving more than 2 million Palestinian Arabs living under both Israeli military rule and limited self-rule, currently under the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Since then, Israelis began building settlements along the West Bank, which the majority of the international community has deemed illegal.
Israel’s call to annex the West Bank comes as Canada and France announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state before the United Nations, with the United Kingdom threatening to do the same if the Jewish state does not end the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Canada has tapped the PA to return to the Gaza Strip and serve as its governor under the condition that it form a freer government and address corruption concerns.
Israel has slammed the move, accusing the G7 nations of rewarding Hamas, which began the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.
Along with the calls to annex the West Bank, members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing party have also called on the Jewish state to annex Gaza.
Security cabinet member Zeev Elkin said the plan was on the table to force Hamas to accept a cease-fire deal.